An insouciant, wisecracking anarchist, Bugs Bunny is an indelible icon of pop culture. This collection begins with Tex Avery's Oscar-nominated A Wild Hare (1940), in which this "cwazy wabbit" (as voiced by Mel Blanc) first uttered the immortal phrase "What's up, Doc?"

"The humor in these cartoons was so sophisticated, so adult, that I found other cartoons on television to be condescending.... Here is 'The Old Grey Hare,' from 1944, which explores the depressing notion that once the pursuit of Mr. Bunny ends, there is no meaning to Mr. Fudd's life. Here is 'Hair-Raising Hare,' from 1946 ... in which Mr. Bunny thwarts a sneakers-wearing monster by sitting him down for a manicure ('I said to my girlfriend just the other day, 'Gee, I'll bet monsters are interesting,' I said. The places you must go, and the things you must see. My stars.'). Here as well are two classic cartoons so feverishly imaginative that each warrants a semester of postgraduate study. Of course both are directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The first is 'Rabbit of Seville,' from 1950, a spoof that somehow elevates Rossini's comic opera by introducing axes, guns, cannons and a fair amount of cross-dressing.... The second is 'What's Opera, Doc?,' from 1957, which runs the familiar hunter-chases-wabbit plot through a Wagnerian blender to create a singular lampoon that all but convinced a generation of animators to surrender their pens."óDan Barry, NYTimes